Why Dolphins coach Adam Gase kept two backup QBs

Sunday

All preseason, it seemed David Fales was ahead of Brock Osweiler in the Miami Dolphins backup quarterback competition.

But Fales never seized the position and in the preseason finale, Osweiler outplayed Fales, appearing to win the position.

Then coach Adam Gase kept both. Gase said the backup quarterbacks my be OR on the depth chart this week.

"I kind of hinted at it the last nine months, but we didn’t pick up on it," Gase said. "Really, at the end of the day, you talk about it being one of the most important positions in professional football.

"Our thought process is we’re going to try to develop guys, and get them ready to go and if we ever have any situation where we need the next guy to get up, we want to make sure we have the right guy. We’re going to keep working with the two guys we got."

Gase said he intends to keep all three players all year. Gase said Osweiler and Fales go back and forth and are close.

Osweiler, 27, has started 25 games in his career, with a 13-2 record. Osweiler has a career passer rating of 76.5.

Fales, 27, has three career games played, with no starts. Fales has a 79.1 career passer rating.

Osweiler struggled with interceptions in the practices open to the media in the spring but appeared mostly poised in preseason games.

Fales has improved his arm strength and is a favorite of Gase’s going back to their time together in Chicago.

Ryan Tannehill, despite missing all of last season with a knee injury, was very durable in the first four seasons of his career, starting all 16 games.